1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid-droplet jetting apparatus such as an ink-jet printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is known an ink-jet printer having an ink-jet head with a plurality of nozzles for jetting ink droplets, and an ink storage chamber for temporarily storing ink to be supplied to the ink-jet head from an ink cartridge, in which a part of a wall defining the ink storage chamber is formed of a flexible film which absorbs pressure fluctuation of ink (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-262723).
To absorb the pressure fluctuation of ink adequately by this flexible film, it is necessary that a large area of the flexible film is assured. However, when the area of the flexible film is made large, a channel cross-sectional area of the ink storage chamber becomes large, and hence partial stagnation may be generated in the flow of ink. Accordingly, in the ink-jet printer disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-262723, a pair of flow regulating ribs is provided so as to guide the ink to flow smoothly from an ink inlet port to an ink outlet port of the ink storage chamber.
Further, in the ink-jet printer described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-262723, the attached ink cartridge and the ink storage chamber are communicated with a tube.
As described above, the part of the wall defining the ink storage chamber of this ink-jet printer is formed with a flexible film that absorbs pressure fluctuation of ink. Therefore, when the ink-cartridge is attached to a cartridge attaching part of the printer main body, an attaching pressure thereof is absorbed by elasticity of the flexible film, when it is transmitted to the storage chamber. The smaller the area of the flexible film is, the shorter the release time required for completely absorbing this attaching pressure becomes.